Patriot Games (1992) – Phillip Noyce

I remember when I was first introduced to the world of Tom Clancy. I was always the biggest reader in my class, I always had a book on the go. In Grade 9, my friend Michael Hay came into class (for some reason I believe it was our French class, and he had the book…

National Treasure (2004) – Jon Turteltaub

Sometimes you just want fluff. And honestly, who doesn’t like the idea of a secret history shrouded in clues and mysteries all around in the everyday, and the history of a country? Like an inoffensive version of The Da Vinci Code, the first National Treasure is a solid popcorn film, meant to entertain and not…

The Martian (2015) – Ridley Scott

  A fantastic book, a top-notch actor, and one of the best technical directors working, what wasn’t to like about The Martian? Clocking in at 141 minutes, my only real issue with the film was that despite the fact that it gave you the number of sols Mark Watney (Matt Damon) spent alone on Mars…

Ronin (1998) – John Frankenheimer

  This entry on the 101 Action Movies list has quite a pedigree, it’s directed by John Frankenheimer, has a screenplay by David Mamet (as Richard Weisz), and stars Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth and Michael Lonsdale. Shot entirely on location in France, the film is gritty, realistic, and…

GoldenEye (1995) – Martin Campbell

  Welcome back to the 101 Action Movies list 007. After a number of years that had Pierce Brosnan’s name bandied about for taking over the role of James Bond, he finally takes on the coveted role and makes it his own. It also features one of my favorite pre-credit sequences in the Bond saga,…

Patriot Games (1992) – Phillip Noyce

Phillip Noyce takes over for John McTiernan, Harrison Ford takes over for Alec Baldwin, and Tom Clancy’s techno-thriller follow-up to The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games finds its way onto the 101 Action Movies list. Jack Ryan (Ford) and his family are on a working vacation in London, when he foils a kidnapping/assassination attempt…

Game of Thrones S02E01 – The North Remembers

I have been looking forward to returning to Westeros since the end of the first season of Game of Thrones, not to mention when I finished the books (still haven’t read Dance of Dragons yet – paperback please). The novels, and now the series it has spawned is epic in nature, there are tons of…

Jack Ryan

Tom Clancy books were just a part of my teen years as Stephen King novels, Star Trek, and classic 80s movies (course how was I to know they were going to be classics when I was watching them? I just knew I loved them. I got into the books with the first paperback edition of…